Spring Cleaning Checklist - Free Printable

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It'll only be a couple weeks and then it will be springtime here in Australia. The 1st of September is traditionally spring and also a time set aside for giving your home a good once over. Before kids, I used to try and break it up into twice a year so it wasn't such a big job in one month. I didn't really want to reinvent the wheel because there are so many spring cleaning checklists on the internet but I did want to just outline the things I wanted to get done. I created this document which I will laminate and as I've done a room will tick as I go. I've got 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets plus a laundry as well but I didn't put that in there.

Spring Cleaning Checklist by Anne M

As far as the cleaning products and kit goes, just use what you would normally use. Everyone has their own favourite cleaning products. Some are organic and homemade and others are store bought. No matter which ones you use, make it easier for yourself and grab them all in a bucket or caddy with a duster (with long handle preferrably), some old cleaning rags and other tools you usually use. Here are a few of my favourite homemade cleaning products.

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I'm not going to bust myself but have given myself the month to get it all done. I'm not sure if I'm going to do one room at a time or clean all the windows at once. In between work and family commitments, I'll just do what I can and if it doesn't get done in September, it can wait until October.

Feel free to use my checklist. It might serve as a guide and keep you on track. That's what I need!

Do you do a once a year big clean up of the house?

Do you follow a schedule or just do a room at a time?

Spring Cleaning Checklist - Free Printable

It’ll only be a couple weeks and then it will be springtime here in Australia. The 1st of September is traditionally spring and also a time set aside for giving your home a good once over. Before kids, I used to try and break it up into twice a year so it wasn’t such a big job in one month. I didn’t really want to reinvent the wheel because there are so many spring cleaning checklists on the internet but I did want to just outline the things I wanted to get done. I created this document which I will laminate and as I’ve done a room will tick as I go. I’ve got 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets plus a laundry as well but I didn’t put that in there.

Spring Cleaning Checklist by Anne M

As far as the cleaning products and kit goes, just use what you would normally use. Everyone has their own favourite cleaning products. Some are organic and homemade and others are store bought. No matter which ones you use, make it easier for yourself and grab them all in a bucket or caddy with a duster (with long handle preferrably), some old cleaning rags and other tools you usually use. Here are a few of my favourite homemade cleaning products.

 I’m not going to bust myself but have given myself the month to get it all done. I’m not sure if I’m going to do one room at a time or clean all the windows at once. In between work and family commitments, I’ll just do what I can and if it doesn’t get done in September, it can wait until October.

Feel free to use my checklist. It might serve as a guide and keep you on track. That’s what I need!

Do you do a once a year big clean up of the house?

Do you follow a schedule or just do a room at a time?

Only 6 months to Christmas (+ Christmas planners)

Okay, okay. I'm sorry. I can hear you all saying "oh, be quiet Anne" (or words to that affect) but it's true! As Santa is sharpening his tools and the major department stores are sending out their mid year toy sale catalogues, it might be time to take stock and work out a budget for Christmas spending, Christmas party planning and gift making.

[photo source]

The end of the year is always going to be a busy time for me with both of my children's birthdays in November. It also coincides with the end of the school year so that means teacher's presents as well as birthday party organising. After this year birthdays will be every second year for my daughter and then by the time my son is 8, he'll be the same.

[photo source]

I always find I get a little flustered around this time of year. Who doesn't? But I want to make sure that I don't leave it until the last minute and starting to schedule a few tasks now. Nothing wrong with writing a few Christmas cards, planning the birthday parties, presents (for both kid's birthdays and Christmas), looking at when school break up is and planning teacher's gifts, organising a family get together and a small Christmas holiday.

[photo source]

Here are a few online Christmas planners to use a little bit closer to Christmas but get started scheduling a few things on your calendar and diary, getting the kids to make their wish lists, Santa letters and Christmas decorating ideas. It'll be here soon enough!

Christmas Planner Pages

DIY Planners for an Organised Christmas

Christmas Planning ebook & printables

Christmas Planner by Tip Junkie

Pretty Printable Planner Pages by Paper Crafting Obsession

There are many more Christmas planning printables on the web, plus gift lists, gift tags, Christmas card printables and plenty of ideas for making your own gifts. Make it your goal to spend as little as possible this Christmas. It's quite challenging but well worth it in the end.

Bathtime Routine Printable

 

Ahhh, remember the days? The days when you brought your new baby home from the hospital, got into the routine of bathing them in their little plastic tub. Watched them having a little kick and splash. Screeeeeeeech! All came to a grinding halt when they became toddlers and wanted to stay in the bath or even worse still, now that they're school age, they have a bath but are no cleaner when they come out to how they were when they went in!

My daughter's very first bath in hospital, 1 day old

I decided it was time to do a 'visual' reminder for them of what body parts need to be washed (like, the whole body) and found these images online. I've laminated it and have it stuck up on the bathroom wall. Hopefully they'll make a game out of it and my 'not quite reading' 5 year old son will remember some of the words to body parts. Feel free to print out a copy for yourself if you're having the same problem as me. I actually did look forward to the day when I didn't have to bathe them, that I could actually get dinner on or watch the news for 5 minutes but it's not really worth it if they don't actually clean themselves!

Christmas Gift - Coffee Voucher Envelope + Printable

I came across this wonderful idea for a Teacher Appreciation gift earlier this year by the talented ladies at Eighteen25 for a coffee voucher. I had it all ready to send to the photo printers, have developed, picked up etc etc when I thought about just printing something on my computer to save time. I copied their tag line "thanks a latte" into a Word document, inserted a scanned version of my son's name, printed it off and pasted it to an envelope and inserted a $5 coffee voucher. I'll pair this with a pack of homemade Macadamia and White Choc Chunk cookies and a handmade card. Getting my son to do some craft is like trying to conquer Mt Everest but in little stages he's okay. We started this back in March this year! (Just kidding.)

Here's the printable for you.

latte

Hope it might come in handy for some last minute Christmas presents.

Christmas Gift - Coffee Voucher Envelope + Printable

I came across this wonderful idea for a Teacher Appreciation gift earlier this year by the talented ladies at Eighteen25 for a coffee voucher. I had it all ready to send to the photo printers, have developed, picked up etc etc when I thought about just printing something on my computer to save time. I copied their tag line “thanks a latte” into a Word document, inserted a scanned version of my son’s name, printed it off and pasted it to an envelope and inserted a $5 coffee voucher. I’ll pair this with a pack of homemade Macadamia and White Choc Chunk cookies and a handmade card. Getting my son to do some craft is like trying to conquer Mt Everest but in little stages he’s okay. We started this back in March this year! (Just kidding.)

Here’s the printable for you.

latte

Hope it might come in handy for some last minute Christmas presents.

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Christmas gifts for children's friends - Christmas Eraser + printable

As I have done for my son, I did a similar gift idea for my daughter's class friends. If I started back in July, I could get my daughter to hand write out every single greeting card for her class mates. She loses interest very quickly. She has 27 in her class and I wanted something quick and easy. She did most of this anyway.

I found this really cute set of Christmas erasers from the dollar store. They were $2 for 9 and with 27 in the class I only needed 3. You could use any eraser you like. A bulk pack is quite cheap to buy. I popped them into one of these small ziplock bags I had a stash of from last year. They're about $2 for 100 from the dollar store and then I made up a little rhyme, typed it in Microsoft Word, inserted a clip art saying "Buon Natale" which is "Merry Christmas" in Italian. (My daughter was learning about Christmas in different countries this term and her surname is Italian.) Then I just stapled it on. I'm sharing the printable with you.

Eraser[1]

Christmas gifts for children's friends - Christmas Eraser + printable

As I have done for my son, I did a similar gift idea for my daughter’s class friends. If I started back in July, I could get my daughter to hand write out every single greeting card for her class mates. She loses interest very quickly. She has 27 in her class and I wanted something quick and easy. She did most of this anyway.

I found this really cute set of Christmas erasers from the dollar store. They were $2 for 9 and with 27 in the class I only needed 3. You could use any eraser you like. A bulk pack is quite cheap to buy. I popped

http://www.homedatingnetwork.com/member/blog_post_view.php?postId=278613

them into one of these small ziplock bags I had a stash of from last year. They’re about $2 for 100 from the dollar store and then I made up a little rhyme, typed it in Microsoft Word, inserted a clip art saying “Buon Natale” which is “Merry Christmas” in Italian. (My daughter was learning about Christmas in different countries this term and her surname is Italian.) Then I just stapled it on. I’m sharing the printable with you.

Eraser[1]
(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

Christmas gifts for children's friends - Rudolph's Spare Nose + Printable

No one told me, when I left the hospital with my babies, that I'd have to come up with 20 to 30 little 'thank you' gifts for my kid's school and kindy friends. I think I tried getting my daughter to write out her friend's name and her name on about 20-odd Christmas cards in her first Kindergarten year and that wasn't going to work so I've been trying to find little ways, that are dead easy for me (and them I suppose) to say a little thank you to their friends at Christmas time and to thank them for being their friend through their school (or kindy) year. These things would also work well with Girl Guide or Scout's friends, sporting teams, ballet classes, whatever the occasion where you need a bulk amount of gifts in a small amount of time.

I found these really big choc orange candy balls (or "Jaffa" balls) from a confectionery warehouse. You could use a normal sized Jaffa or even a red raspberry lolly. I also had a stash of small ziplock bags from last year. You can pick them up from a dollar store for about $2 for 100.

I got my son to write his name and I scanned it into the computer and saved as a .jpg file. I then found a really cute "Rudolph" poem and clip art image of Rudolph, put it into a Microsoft Word table, printed it and stapled it to the plastic bag. From what I heard, the Kindy friends loved them. And for your enjoyment, a printable for you to do your own tags.

Rudolph[1]

I'm linking up with one of my most favourite blogs Design Dazzle.

Rudolph's Spare Nose + Printable

No one told me, when I left the hospital with my babies, that I’d have to come up with 20 to 30 little ‘thank you’ gifts for my kid’s school and kindy friends. I think I tried getting my daughter to write out her friend’s name and her name on about 20-odd Christmas cards in her first Kindergarten year and that wasn’t going to work so I’ve been trying to find little ways, that are dead easy for me (and them I suppose) to say a little thank you to their friends at Christmas time and to thank them for being their friend through their school (or kindy) year. These things would also work well with Girl Guide or Scout’s friends, sporting teams, ballet classes, whatever the occasion where you need a bulk amount of gifts in a small amount of time.

I found these really big choc orange candy balls (or “Jaffa” http://www.lookuppage.biz/users/paulsen/ balls) from a confectionery warehouse. You could use a normal sized Jaffa or even a red raspberry lolly. I also had a stash of small ziplock bags from last year. You can pick them up from a dollar store for about $2 for 100.

I got my son to write his name and I scanned it into the computer and saved as a .jpg file. I then found a really cute “Rudolph” poem and clip art image of Rudolph, put it into a Microsoft Word table, printed it and stapled it to the plastic bag. From what I heard, the Kindy friends loved them. And for your enjoyment, a printable for you to do your own tags.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.domesblissity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Rudolph-tag.pdf” title=”Rudolph tag”]

 

 

Organising myself for the 'Silly Season' + free printable

I was visiting with my Mother today and I spoke to her about all that I had on from now until Christmas time. I couldn't believe how much there was. In the grand scheme of things, it's not really that much, really. Let's see, school friend's 7th birthday party, Halloween, Sock Hop dance, Melbourne Cup luncheon (Melbourne Cup is the equivalent to the Kentucky Derby in the US or the Epsom Derby in the UK), Mum's pacemaker operation, daughter's 7th birthday (which will mean 27 cupcakes for school) and that's just the next 2 weeks! With a little careful planning and list making, I might get through it.

I was inspired by a great organising guru gal I know, Jen from I Heart Organizing who created a weekly "Peak at the Week" form. I adjusted it to suit myself, as in what I have to do, make, bake, cook etc and what needs to be done on weekends etc. Jen's is much nicer than mine but this is what I came up with and you're free to use it if you wish.

The_Silly_Season_Checklist

For my northern hemisphere friends, it really must seem like the silly season to you with surfing, seafood, salads and cold beer on Christmas Day but I think the heat does get to some people, especially me and it definitely is the silly season. Especially since my daughter started school and has got a far better social life than I.

What do you use to help you get organised? Do you need a check list?

Linking up with Jen from I Heart Organizing.

Organising myself for the 'Silly Season' + free printable

I was visiting with my Mother today and I spoke to her about all that I had on from now until Christmas time. I couldn’t believe how much there was. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not really that much, really. Let’s see, school friend’s 7th birthday party, Halloween, Sock Hop dance, Melbourne Cup luncheon (Melbourne Cup is the equivalent to the Kentucky Derby in the US or the Epsom Derby in the UK), Mum’s pacemaker operation, daughter’s 7th birthday (which will mean 27 cupcakes for school) and that’s just the next 2 weeks! With a little careful planning and list making, I might get through it.

I was inspired by a great organising guru gal I know, Jen from I Heart Organizing who created a weekly “Peak at the Week” form. I adjusted it to suit myself, as in what I have to do, make, bake, cook etc and what needs to be done on weekends etc. Jen’s is much nicer than mine but this is what I came up with and you’re free to use it if you wish.

The_Silly_Season_Checklist
(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

For my northern hemisphere friends, it really must seem like the silly season to you with surfing, seafood, salads and cold beer on Christmas Day but I think the heat does get to some people, especially me and it definitely is the silly season. Especially since my daughter started school and has got a far better social life than I.

What do you use to help you get organised? Do you need a check list?

Linking up with Jen from I Heart Organizing.

Free Printable: Tea bag tags for Mother's Day

My Mum is the worst (or easiest) to think of gifts for. She has everything, she's 80 years old this year and she loves the simple things in life. Because she is getting old she doesn't have the energy for much baking anymore (she was, and still is to a certain extent, an excellent cook and baker) so she appreciates some little homemade treat from me. Usually biscuits, a slice or sweets.

I came across this idea on One Pretty Thing the other day and I thought I could rustle this up in no time. Well, "no time" has arrived and it's Mother's Day tomorrow so I thought I better get my act together. I typed up the tags a few nights ago, just printed them out now, stapled them to tea bags and will wrap and box up with Lemon Date Bars, which needs to cool down in the fridge and then iced.

Tea bags by laukanne6473

Just cut out the tag and staple it to your Mum's favourite tea bag. I got the idea from A Subtle Revelry. Thank you Victoria.

Free Printable: Tea bag tags for Mother's Day

My Mum is the worst (or easiest) to think of gifts for. She has everything, she’s 80 years old this year and she loves the simple things in life. Because she is getting old she doesn’t have the energy for much baking anymore (she was, and still is to a certain extent, an excellent cook and baker) so she appreciates some little homemade treat from me. Usually biscuits, a slice or sweets.

I came across this idea on One Pretty Thing the other day and I thought I could rustle this up in no time. Well, “no time” has arrived and it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow so I thought I better get my act together. I typed up the tags a few nights ago, just printed them out now, stapled them to tea bags and will wrap and box up with Lemon Date Bars, which needs to cool down in the fridge and then iced.

Tea bags by laukanne6473

Just cut out the tag and staple it to your Mum’s favourite tea bag. I got the idea from A Subtle Revelry. Thank you Victoria.